Paleorrota (Paleoroute in English), is a geopark located in the center of the state of the Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. The area exposes geologic formations filled with rocks and fossils which date back to the Late Permian—Triassic periods.

The route is located within a vast area that has Triassic age sediments (Late, Middle and Early) and Late Permian ages and which have varied between 210 and 270 million years ago. The Geopark has several paleontological sites, which belongs to rock formation Santa Maria, Caturrita, Sanga do Cabral, Rio do Rastro and Irati. These sites are renowned for the preservation of fossilized ancient vertebrates, with a diverse fauna. In the southwest of the geopark, fossils date back to the Permian, 270 million years ago.

Staurikosaurus was the first Brazilian dinosaur to be discovered, and was first uneathed in Santa Maria in Paleontological Site Jazigo Cinco, by paleontologist Llewellyn Ivor Price.

The city of Mata, together with the cities of São Pedro do Sul and Santa Maria, form a large deposit of petrified trees in an area of more than 70 km².^[1]

Museums

Museum of Paleontology Irajá Damiani Pinto Porto Alegre Botanical Garden Museum of Science and Technology (PUCRS) Museum Education Gama D'Eça. Museum Vincente Pallotti. Museum Aristides Carlos Rodrigues. Museum Paleontologic and Archaeological Walter Ilha. Museum Daniel Cargnin.

At the end of the Permian, 95% of the life on Earth disappeared during the event known as Permian–Triassic extinction event. During the epoch that followed, the Early Triassic, many new vertebartes, including dinosaurs, became the dominant land animals, and many such early dinosaurs have been preserved in the sediments of Paleorrota.

• Staurikosaurus which is one of the oldest saurischians.
• Sacisaurus which may be the oldest ornithischian.
• Pelycosaurs gave rise to cynodonts, which led to mammals. The Geopark has much to contribute to understand the Evolution of mammals.

Contents 1 Vertebrates of Paleorrota 2 CAPPA - Research Center for Support of Palaeontology 3 Cities 4 History 5 Fossils of the region 6 Geological formations 7 Legislation 8 Notes and references 9 See also 10 External links

Vertebrates of PaleorrotaEdit

Exaeretodon

Prestosuchus

Staurikosaurus

rhynchosaur

Stahleckeria

Exaeretodon

Unaysaurus

Mesosaurus

Rutiodon

Stagonolepis

Peltobatrachus

Procolophon

Protorosaurus

Scutosaurus

Dinodontosaurus

Ischigualastia

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CAPPA - Research Center for Support of PalaeontologyEdit

Institutions

Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. Federal University of Santa Maria.

CAPPA (Research Center for Support of Palaeontology) or (Centro de Apoio a Pesquisa Paleontológica), in Portuguese. Located near the Monument of Nossa Senhora da Salete, near of highway RS 149, in the city of São João do Polêsine, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

The center will have a museum, research centers, laboratories, auditorium, classroom, place of lodging, restaurant and various services to be offered to visitors, researchers and students who study in the paleontology. It will be a center of support for the search geopark of Paleorrota.

The center will have an approximate area of 2.649m², and is divided into three stages of construction, while the first is already fully built. It is a work which has the sponsorship of Petrobras and Eletrobras. ^{[2] [3]}

CitiesEdit

The Geopark of Paleorrota comprises 21 municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul
City	Information
Porto Alegre	Although Porto Alegre is not located within the area of the Triassic rocks, it has the highest number of paleontologists of Rio Grande do Sul and posesses a large number of museums, institutions and universities : The UFRGS has a large number of paleontologists specializing in vertebrates and houses the Museum of Paleontology Irajá Damiani Pinto. In 1998 the first Brazilian Symposium on Vertebrate Paleontology was held at UFRGS. The PUCRS has contributed to the paleorrota. Its important Museum of Science and Technology displays fossils of the region. The UNISINOS has a team specializing in paleobotany. At the Museum of Natural Sciences, incorporated into the Porto Alegre Botanical Garden, is an exhibition of fossils found in the geopark.
Santa Maria	Santa Maria has been built on large fossil deposits featuring 22 outcrops within the city limits. Several of its museums have dinosaurs on display. In 2006, the University UFSM held the fifth Brazilian Symposium on Vertebrate Paleontology.[4] It was in Santa Maria that Staurikosaurus (amongst many other fossils) was first found. Within the city limits are the following paleontological sites: Paleontological Site Arroio Cancela. Paleontological Site Largo Padre Daniel Cargnin. Paleontological Site Bela Vista. Paleontological Site Jazigo Cinco. Paleontological Site Sanga of Alemoa. Municipal museums with fossils on display: Educational Museum Gama D'Eça. Museum Vincente Pallotti.
Candelária	Candelária has also been an area where fossil vertebrates have been discovered. The thecodont Karamuru was collected here in 2000. In the city alone are 17 outcrops.Municipal museum with fossils on display: Museum Aristides Carlos Rodrigues.
São Pedro do Sul	São Pedro do Sul has a large reserve of petrified trees and a museum with dinosaur fossils. The city is located 40 km from Santa Maria. In 1938 the paleontologist Friedrich von Huene collected here the thecodont Prestosuchus chiniquensis. Paleontological Site Chiniquá. Municipal museum with fossils on display: Paleontological and Archeological Museum Walter Ilha.
Mata	In the city of Mata are large deposits of petrified trees. Municipal museum with fossils on display: Museum Daniel Cargnin.
São João do Polêsine	São João do Polêsine is situated approximately 50 kilometers from Santa Maria. Within the city are outcrops with fossils. The CAPPA (Support Center for Research on Palaeontology) is under construction in this city.
Agudo	In Agudo Sacisaurus was found.
São Martinho da Serra	Here Unaysaurus was discovered, 13 kilometers from Santa Maria. Paleontological Site of Agua Negra.
Dona Francisca	Near the city of Santa Maria. Dona Francisca likewise has fossil-bearing outcrops. In 2008 a 240 million year old cynodont (Luangwa) was found here.
Faxinal do Soturno	Close to Santa Maria. Faxinal do Soturno has outcrops with fossils.
Cachoeira do Sul	The fossil-bearing outcrops are to the north of the city. In Agudo, near Cachoeira do Sul, the ULBRA of Cachoeira do Sul discovered the fossil remnants of Sacisaurus.
São Gabriel	In São Gabriel the fossil remains of an ancient amphibian appeared that date back to the Permian (270 million years ago). [5] Here three geological formations crop out: Irati Formation (Passo São Borja). Age: Late Permian. Rio do Rastro Formation (Posto Queimado). Age: Late Permian. Sanga do Cabral Formation (Abandoned railroad between Dilermando de Aguiar and São Gabriel). Age: Late Triassic.
Aceguá	In the Aceguá area the outcrops are located between the City of Aceguá and Bagé, along the highway BR-153. They belong to the Rio do Rastro Formation and are Late Permian in age.
Bagé	In the Bagé area the outcrops are located between the City of Aceguá and Bagé, along the highway BR-153. They belong to the Rio do Rastro Formation and are Late Permian in age.
Dilermando de Aguiar	In Dilermando de Aguiar the Sanga do Cabral Formation crops out along the abandoned railroad between Dilermando de Aguiar and São Gabriel).Early Triassic age.
Santa Cruz do Sul	Here the fossil of a cynodont was found. [6]

HistoryEdit

Source: UFSM and UFRGS.

1902 saw the first paleontological searches in Santa Maria, with the collection of fossils organic petrifieds by Dr. Jango Fischer, in the vicinity of the Mount of Alemoa, a region of rocky outcrops between the city and the then district of Camobi. Jango Fischer, in 1902, collected some remains and sent them to Prof. Dr. Hermann von Ihering, then director of the Museum in São Paulo. They were three vertebral bodies almost complete, a piece of vertebra, a finger of four phalanges, and an ungual alone. Von Ihering, in turn, referred the material to Arthur Smith Woodward, eminent paleontologist at the British Museum of London, for study. This resulted in the determination of the first terrestrial reptile fossil in South America, the rhynchosaur baptized by Woodward with the name of Scaphonyx fischeri, the generic name given in reference to the excavation and claw feature, and the specific name in homage to Jango Fischer, the discoverer of the remains.

From then, the international scientific attention focused mostly on Santa Maria, leading to a series of scientific expeditions. One expedition was conducted by German Friedrich von Huene, in 1928-29, and several expeditions were organized by Llewellyn Ivor Price, of the Bureau of Paleontology of the National Department of Mineral Production of Rio de Janeiro, between the 1930s and 1950s, mainly in paleontological sites near the cities of São Pedro do Sul, Santa Maria and Candelaria. Many fossils collected by Friedrich von Huene are now at the University of Tübingen, Germany.

Many of the fossils collected there should be devoted to work and without major financial resources held by Priest Daniel Cargnin and Priest Abraham Cargnin, which enriched the collections of several museums, like the Museum Vincente Pallotti. In tribute to the recently deceased Priest Daniel Cargnin, several fossils received his name.

From the 1960s, with the creation of the School of Geology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul,^[7] and then of its Post-Graduate Course in the geological mapping of the state received a large increase, and the palaeontological knowledge of the sedimentary rocks found there.

In the 70's and 80’s in the city of São Pedro do Sul, Walter Ilha, an amateur paleontologist, collected fossils in the region. He also collected bibliographies, books and magazines on paleontology. He struggled to build a museum in the city, and in 1987, he died and the museum took the name of Museum Paleontologic and Archaeological Walter Ilha.

Fossils of the regionEdit

The vertebrate fossils are found in the red soil. Depending on the process of fossilization, they will have certain characteristics:

• Without Calcium carbonate, the fossils have a white color and are easily dissolved in water.
• With Calcium carbonate, the fossils have the color of brown rust, and have the form of concrete because of the calcium carbonate. When a fossil is with the ideal amount of calcium carbonate, the fossil is not deformed, and does not dissolve in water. But excess of carbonate will deform the fossil, giving it a swollen appearance. If there is a very large quantity of carbonate, the fossil is like a dusty, and that dissolves in water.

Another important feature is caused by the movement of soil. During the millions of years that the fossils are of the low soil, the slow movement of the soil creates ripples in the fossil, or the fossil can be wavy.

Most of the red soil of the region is covered by soil. Only one percent of the red soil is exposed in creeks, streams, lakes and roads.

Geological formationsEdit

Geological Formation of Geopark
Formation	Age	City	Fauna
Caturrita	Late Triassic	Santa Maria Candelária São Pedro do Sul Mata Santa Cruz do Sul Cachoeira do Sul São João do Polêsine Faxinal do Soturno Dona Francisca Agudo, Rio Grande do Sul São Martinho da Serra	Dinosaurs Rhynchosaurs Thecodonts Dicynodonts Cynodonts Sphenodonts
Santa Maria	Late Triassic Middle Triassic	Santa Maria Candelária São Pedro do Sul Mata Santa Cruz do Sul Cachoeira do Sul São João do Polêsine Faxinal do Soturno Dona Francisca Agudo São Martinho da Serra	Dinosaurs Rhynchosaurs Thecodonts Dicynodonts Cynodonts Sphenodonts Procolophon pricei
Sanga do Cabral	Early Triassic	São Gabriel Dilermando de Aguiar	Amphibians Procolophon pricei Protorosaurus Pareiasaurs Dinocephalians
Rio do Rastro	Late Permian	Aceguá Bagé São Gabriel	Amphibians Dicynodonts
Irati	Late Permian	São Gabriel	Mesosaurus

LegislationEdit

Since the 1940s, federal legislation has protected the fossils as property of the Union. In 2001, state legislation was passed to protect the fossils of Paleorrota. In general, it states:

• The fossils are a cultural heritage of the state.
• The fossils can only be collected by paleontologists or technicians who are working for officially recognized institutions.
• Foreign institutions are only to support an institution's search state.
• A visit to Sites Paleontologics can only be performed with the accompaniment of someone authorized.
• Transport of fossils can only be done with authorization, with guarantee of return.
• The only economic purposes to be carried out are tours with authorized guides.

The legislation completes this in Brazilian Society of Paleontology.^[8]

Notes and referencesEdit

See alsoEdit

• Fossil collecting
• List of synapsids
• Paleobiology
• Ichnology
• Taphonomy

External linksEdit

• See here the area of paleorrota
• Dinosaurs of Rio grande do Sul.
• Anfíbios Fósseis do Tríassico do Rio Grande do Sul
• Banco de Dados de Sítios Paleontológicos.
• Tetrápodes Triássicos do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil.
• Mapa Geológico de Agudo
• Sítio uma nova Assembleia Fossilifera do Triássico Médio do sul do Brasil.
• Sítio Linha Várzea - uma nova Assembleia Fossilifera do Triássico Meodo do sul do Brasil.
• Paleontological Tourism at Santa Maria City, Southern Brazil.
• Técnica de Coleta de Fósseis em pelitos laminados.
• Sitios Paleobotânicos do arenito Mata e São Pedro, RS.
• Revisão Osteológica de Massetognathus Pascuali
• A Procolophonoid reptile with temporal fenestration from the Middle Triassic of Brazil.
• Problems in Western Gondwana Geology.
• Diagenetic Pattern of Vertebrate fossils from the traversodontidae Biozone, Santa Maria Formation.
• The Continental Tetrapod-bearing Triassic of South Brazil.
• Early Triassic Postcranial Temnospondyl Remains from Southern Brazil.
• Brasilodon and Brasilitherium, Late Triassic of southern Brazil
• Heterochrony in a fossil Reptile: Rhynchosaur scaphonyx (Late Triassic), Brazil.
• Pareiasaurids from Rio do Rastro Formation (Permian, Brazil)